{"id":386657,"date":"2026-04-19T02:20:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386657\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:20:25","slug":"threat-of-grounded-planes-nears-as-jet-fuel-supplies-dwindle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386657\/","title":{"rendered":"Threat of grounded planes nears as jet fuel supplies dwindle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Follow our live coverage here.<\/a><\/p>\n

PARIS – Could planes soon be stuck on the ground due to a lack of fuel? The risk of jet fuel shortages is growing each day the Strait of Hormuz remains closed,<\/a> although it isn\u2019t certain when exactly supplies will run out.<\/p>\n

The risk of shortages is greatest in Asia, and to a lesser extent Europe, as they both rely on oil from the Gulf and its refineries for their supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation can, within the next three, four weeks, become systemic,\u201d Rystad Energy economist Claudio Galimberti said on US financial news channel CNBC on April 14 about jet fuel shortages.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you can have severe cuts of flights in Europe, already starting in May and June,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Dr Galimberti said flights had already been cancelled due to fuel shortages, but the European Commission on the same day said there was no lack of fuel as yet. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence for fuel shortages in the European Union at present,\u201d said spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen.<\/p>\n

However she acknowledged that \u201csupply issues could occur in the near future in particular for jet fuels\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Airports Council International Europe wrote to the European Commission saying shortages of jet fuel could begin in three weeks \u2013 at the beginning of May, if tankers don\u2019t begin sailing through the Strait of Hormuz before then.<\/p>\n

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 through which a fifth of the world\u2019s crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transited before the war \u2013 has been almost completely blocked since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb 28.<\/p>\n

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Dr Fatih Birol, also warned that Europe could face shortages of jet fuel \u201cmaybe beginning of May\u201d.<\/p>\n

In its latest monthly report on the oil market, released on April 14, the IEA advanced a later date.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the global jet fuel market tightens further and European markets are unable to secure more than 50 per cent of their lost Middle East volumes, then stocks will hit the crucial 23-day level in June,\u201d it warned.<\/p>\n

It is hard to make sweeping generalisations about the situation.<\/p>\n

Japan is heavily dependant upon imports but has built up considerable reserves.<\/p>\n

The situation also varies considerably with Europe.<\/p>\n

Austria, Bulgaria and Poland have comfortable stocks. For Britain, Iceland and the Netherlands it is the opposite.<\/p>\n

France is somewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n

And the impact won\u2019t be the same for all airports and airlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmaller, inland located, airports will be in a weaker position than the main hubs,\u201d ING Bank economist Rico Luman told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be a matter of full halt, but part cancellation at some airlines and airports,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Airlines have little visibility to plan their flight schedules.<\/p>\n

Airlines for Europe (A4E), a trade association that includes Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Ryanair, has been urging the European Union to begin providing real time information on jet fuel stocks at airports.<\/p>\n

The data would have to come from fuel suppliers, who are not enthusiastic about turning over sensitive commercial data to their major clients.<\/p>\n

TotalEnergies has warned that if oil supplies from the Gulf remain blocked in June it won\u2019t be able to supply all of its customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this war and this blockade last more than three months, we\u2019ll begin to face some serious supply issues in some products like jet fuel,\u201d the company\u2019s chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said on April 13.<\/p>\n

Airlines for Europe (A4E) has also suggested that the European Commission exceptionally authorise the import of US jet fuel, which is produced to a slightly different standard than in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Regulary, political and logisitical issues mean there is little chance this could happen in the near future. AFP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0Follow our live coverage here. PARIS – Could planes soon be stuck on the ground due to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-386657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}